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In Memoriam: Rick Woudenberg


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Tara Brach's Dharma Talks at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
Tara Brach
A pervasive but often invisible source of suffering in our culture is self-aversion. We are a busy culture, and we move through our life feeling anxious and dissatisfied, but not fully conscious of how we neglect or judge our inner experience. We suffer from a lack of belonging: to our own bodies, to each other and to the earth. When we practice Buddhist meditation, we learn how to listen deeply and hold our life tenderly.
2007-10-31 Stress, Wakeful Relaxation And Freedom 1:11:20
We are designed to respond to stress with flight/fight/freeze and this can proliferate and then harden into our ongoing response to life. The practice of presence, of recognizing and relaxing with what is arising, can cut through this conditioning and gift us with the realization of our true nature and the capacity to love fully.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-10-17 The Three Refuges 1:22:30
Dharma, Sangha and Buddha - In Buddhism there are three, interdependent gateways to freedom. Called refuges, they are the expressions of truth that carry us home to the essence of what we are. These two talks investigate the way we take "false refuge"--habitual ways of trying to control experience--and the profound happiness and peace in discovering true refuge.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-10-10 The Three Refuges 1:11:30
Dharma, Sangha and Buddha - In Buddhism there are three, interdependent gateways to freedom. Called refuges, they are the expressions of truth that carry us home to the essence of what we are. These two talks investigate the way we take "false refuge"--habitual ways of trying to control experience--and the profound happiness and peace in discovering true refuge.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-10-03 Path Of Peace 1:12:35
Awakening from the Trance of Separation - We all have conditioning that can keep us at war with our inner life, and fuel violence in the world. These universal tendencies can block our natural attunement and capacity to respond with compassion to life. The practices of presence allow us to recognize this conditioning and awaken to the truth of our connectedness, to the wisdom and love that make peace possible.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-09-26 The Gift Of Silence 1:18:19
Through all spiritual traditions, there is a valuing of silence and stillness. When the mind has quieted, it becomes possible to see into the truth of what we are. Yet quieting can turn into a battle with the process of the thinking mind. This talk explores practices that allow us to settle in a natural way, the presence which is silence itself, and the wisdom and love that flows freely when we live from that silence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-09-19 The Joy Of Conscious Relationships 1:23:42
We live in a relational field, and as we develop the capacity for presence with others, we discover the truth of our connectedness. This discovery is experienced as love, and gives rise to genuine happiness and inner freedom. This talk explores the teachings and practices that nourish conscious relationships.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-09-05 Two Kinds Of Happiness 1:18:01
The Dalai Lama often begins his talks "Everyone wants to be Happy... Nobody wants to suffer." It's true, and yet sadly, our ways of pursuing happiness are often the very cause of suffering. This talk describes the shadow side of seeking happiness, and the practices of presence that lead to spiritual freedom and genuine happiness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-08-29 Wise Effort 1:15:58
Cultivating an Engaged Presence - A wholehearted commitment to awakening is intrinsic to the spiritual path. Yet often this becomes a striving kind of effort that is generated out of the sense of a "doing self." This talk reflects on the grounds of wise effort: connecting to our deepest intention, and cultivating a genuinely allowing, engaged, presence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-08-22 Touching Enlightenment With The Body 1:12:52
Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of our experience- our unlived life. This rejected energy is stored in our bodies and prevents us from living wakefully and wholeheartedly. By bringing a courageous, mindful presence to bodily sensations our energies untangle and flow freely. Rather than a frightened resisting "self" we rediscover our full aliveness, connectedness and luminosity of Being.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2007-08-15 Soul Of The Whole 1:21:25
Our incessant inner dialog contracts us into the sense of a small limited self. The practices of presence - noticing and allowing our experience - awakens us from this limiting identity and allows us to realize the loving awareness that is our essence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

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